This bill authorizes the department of transportation and the department of safety to share vehicle registration information with other states as necessary to enforce reciprocal toll collection and to deny registration renewal for certain vehicles due to unpaid tolls incurred in another state.

IV. The commissioner may enter into discussions with other state jurisdictions to create reciprocal agreements for the enforcement and collection of tolls and administrative fees due under the E-Z Pass system. The departments of transportation and safety may release driver's and owner's vehicle registration information to other departments and jurisdictions, as necessary, for the purpose of reciprocal enforcement or collection of tolls between New Hampshire and other states and may take such other action as is necessary to effectuate the reciprocal enforcement agreements.

V. For effective toll collection enforcement, the department of transportation and the department of safety are authorized to accept requests from another state to deny registration renewal privileges for a vehicle registration plate for unpaid tolls incurred in the other state, provided that the other state represents that the request is in keeping with criteria for denial of registration renewal privileges at set forth in the state's reciprocal toll collection enforcement agreement.

2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.

*Pursuant to Part II, article 6-a of the New Hampshire constitution, any costs associated with the collection and administration of Highway Funds by the Department of Safety shall be deducted by the Department before such funds are credited to the Highway Fund as unrestricted revenue.

METHODOLOGY:

This bill authorizes the Department of Transportation and the Department of Safety to share vehicle registration information with other states as necessary to enforce reciprocal toll collection and to deny registration renewal for certain vehicles due to unpaid tolls incurred in another state. Currently, New Hampshire holds reciprocal agreements with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the State of Maine and utilizes holds on motor vehicle registrations to increase toll collections. The Department of Transportation states this bill would allow them to enter into agreements with other states, including: Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New York. The Department reports the current number of turnpike customers eligible for holds in these states is low relative to Massachusetts and Maine, but the Department anticipates the number of customers to increase as “All Electronic Tolling” is implemented in FY 2021. Estimated new collections as result of these agreements are as follows:

State

Eligible Customers

77 Percent of Tolls Due

18 Percent of Fees Due

Estimated New Collections

Connecticut

59

$2,137.33

$9,139.50

$11,276.83

New Jersey

16

$725.73

$1,390.50

$2,116.23

Rhode Island

12

$196.93

$1,003.50

$1,200.43

Vermont

78

$1,351.74

$7,092

$8,443.74

New York

0

$0.00

$0.00

$0.00

Total

165

$4,411.72

$18,625.50

$23,037.22

Note: the Department of Transportation assumes 77 percent of unpaid tolls and 18 percent of unpaid administrative fees would be collected based on current collection percentages for Massachusetts and Maine customers.

The Department reports the need to hire an additional employee to handle the additional customers eligible for holds as a result of this bill.

Estimated New Position

FY 2020

FY 2021

FY 2022

FY 2023

Program Assistant II (LG 15, Step 1)

$54,000

$63,000

$66,000

$68,000

The Department of Safety reports this bill would require significant programming changes to the Department’s MAAP system to allow interfacing with other states at an initial cost of $173,250. For each state added to the system, the cost per state is estimated to be $21,000 in testing and integration procedures. Therefore, under the assumption New Hampshire interfaces with the four northeastern states with customers eligible for collections, the system programming costs would be $257,250 ($173,250 + $84,000). Additionally, the Department estimates an annual cost of $10,000 in material and postage expenditures to send notifications of suspensions.